Science: Little, Dancing Moneymaker

Wah-wah-taysee, little firefly, Little, flitting white-fire insect, Little, dancing white-fire creature, Light me with your little candle, Ere upon my bed I lay me, Ere in sleep I close my eyelids.

Longfellow's little Hiawatha loved fireflies. So do today's kids. So, in a professional sense, do many scientists, who recognize the firefly's light as a love call—but are both baffled and fascinated by its heatless, chemically generated properties. As of last week a chemical company, Schwartz Bio-Research Inc. of Mount Vernon,N.Y.,had found a happy way of 1) letting children turn their firefly chasing to profit, 2) putting firefly tails to practical human...

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